AUSTRALIA — Australia is a country of extremes. Modern cities and ancient indigenous tribes. The Great Barrier Reef and Mount Augustus. Ten-percent of adult males downloading porn at work – and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds banning potentially naughty bird words.According to The Australian, the Society is in the process of cleaning up the birding lexicon in order to avoid any unnecessary potty talk.

At specific issue is the word “cock.”

Many, both inside and outside of the world of sexuality realize that the word refers to a male bird – but fear of offending the delicate has led the Society to remove it from view on the group’s website. Instead, readers will be left to puzzle out what four replacement asterisks mean.

Strangely, the bird species “tit” has not experienced similar outrages.

Although a staff member insisted that a software filter had made the change, a Royal Society for the Protection of Birds countered that the organization preferred to use “male” and “female” when referring to birds.

Whichever excuse is at the root of the change, John D. of Yorkshire told The Sun that he is having none of it. “As bird lovers will know, a Parus Major is a great tit, and while cocks do not get past the forum censor, tits do not cause offense. I’ve heard of PC, but that is taking things too far.”

Surely, this is a sentiment that admirers of both great tits and cocks can agreed upon.